Race Reports

The race in St. George left me empty and not sure how to feel. While I wasn’t terribly upset, I also wasn’t incredibly happy with my performance. I like to take some time to reflect before writing a blog. I was so impressed with the ladies with whom I had the opportunity to share the racecourse last weekend that I would rather start with their performances. In brief, Meredith Kessler was a class above – and showed it all day. From the gun, she took charge and controlled the race pace, leaving the rest of us to try to keep up. Jodie Swallow is always an aggressive competitor and as I expected she was out front and fighting as usual. But, she also showed something I haven’t seen before. She showed patience and tactical acumen that will serve her well in her Ironman races: Frankfurt and Kona. Heather Wurtele showed that her stellar form at the start of 2014 was no fluke as she battled on her own all day and didn’t give an inch. I venture to guess if we backed off a hair that she would have flown in to taken the title. Julie Dibens always impresses me, and she’s one of the toughest, hardest working ladies I have ever had the privilege to train alongside. I have no doubt that she will continue her rise back from injury, and I expect to see her atop many podiums in the next few years. And, then there’s Bek Keat who showed that she is one of the toughest ladies mentally and physically. After a bad day on the bike, she battled back with the fastest run of the day, showing her resilience. The rest of the top ten — and event top 15 — includes a who’s who of current and future triathlon stars. It was on the best women’s race mid-season that I have ever seen. As for my race, the swim was solid. I was happy to exit the water in the lead pack with some of the top swimmers in the sport. I know full well that in the swim, anything can happen, and I know that even if training is going well it doesn’t always translate in open water. On the bike, my legs felt mediocre and I struggled all day to find my rhythm. Whether I am not as good as the other ladies or if I just had an off-day, I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to dictate the pace, especially on the climbs where I like to be aggressive. Onto the run, my best wasn’t good enough whether my legs were sluggish or my mind wasn’t focused, it wasn’t enough. My best netted only a 4th place finish on the day. In reflection, the race gave me plenty to absorb. While it is only May, this race was a perfect...

Another Ironman means it is time for a race report. Instead of dulling you into a stupor with the play-by-play of race day, I will dazzle you with a quick recap of the good, the bad, and the ugly. The Good: The first “good” was the amazing on course support race day. It was so incredible to have so many friendly faces out there on race day, including my husband Eric, my coach Siri, my Cervelo support super stars, Lesley and Jason, Chris from Rudy Project and everyone else who was out there cheering all day. I know that I, for one, enjoy suffering so much more when there is such an amazing atmosphere, and Melbourne really delivered. The second good was the venue, which was an amazing urban race with a bit of everything. I loved the ocean swim and the run course was the most scenic and unique I have ever had the chance to do. While the bike course wasn’t my favorite, the women’s race was clean and the road was clear which made for a very safe and fair race. The third good was the volunteers and Ironman Asia Pacific support staff who made the trip and race go smoothly. Thanks so much to the volunteers for taking the time to help out and make the event a success. And to the organizers who took care of everything we needed before , during, and after the race. Final good was the coffee…. Seriously. No, really, it’s good. The coffee in Australia is amazing! I am in withdrawal now. I am blaming that as one of the contributors to my delayed blog. The Bad: The first bad would have to be my mid-run chub-rub. This was a bit annoying but nothing that some aid station Vaseline couldn’t fix. You have to check out my Witsup interview here for more on that one. The second bad would also be missing one of the most exciting men’s Ironman races ever. I didn’t get to see any of the action as the point-to-point run course left us out of the loop. (And my husbands updates were, well, spotty at best.) The Ugly: The first ugly was losing my “ghetto bento” (plastic baggie attached to bike stem with electrical tape, which Cervelo has been begging to replace for several years now) with all my race calories in the first 2km of the bike ride. This led me to have to rely on only my two bottles and whatever I could grab from the aid stations. While I couldn’t get quite as much fuel as I needed on the bike, I managed to get in as much as I could at the start of the run to curb the calorie deficit to make it to the finish. The second ugly was doing an Ironman in March. I would prefer to wait...

As an athlete failure is something we all face at one time or another. For many reasons my race in Panama was what I would consider a failure. From every misstep though is an opportunity to learn and grow as an athlete. Luckily the more spectacular the failure the more you can learn so I have many insights I can share with you! 1.) Heat affects everyone differently – this race taught me that I am one that requires a bit of acclimation before I can race well in the heat. The knowledge from this race will definitely help Siri and I plan our preparation for Kona. We will definitely not be flying in 2 days before the race. 2.) Mental trauma from a crash has lasting impacts – I had a collision with an age grouper early in the 2nd lap of the bike and that combined with my recent memory of September’s crash left me very tentative on the bike course. Unfortunately, a very congested 4-lap bike course requires the professionals to be aggressive and rewards that behavior. Any professional doing this race needs to ensure they are physically and mentally ready to ride aggressively in order to have their best bike performance. 3.) Fitness in February is tricky – I thought I was too fit for February but based on my race it doesn’t appear so. As a professional hoping to peak in the early fall, it is hard to get the fitness you need to race well in the early spring and be able to steadily build to a crescendo in the fall. It is very hard for athletes to maintain this top end all year long. Athletes winning in February and March always find it difficult to win in October. If I don’t have to chase points, I much prefer to wait and start my race season at the end of the spring. 4.) Nutrition is always something to be refined – I have had trouble in the heat with my breakfast routine. In Kona, I always assumed that it was swallowing of seawater that led me to have trouble with puking and an inability to eat for the first 60K of the bike. But I had the same issue in this race and the 17-minute swim was not long enough to drink that much seawater. I think it may be time to revisit my food choices race morning. Luckily, I was able to get down only one bottle of First Endurance EFS during the race but that one bottle plus lots of ice and water on the run got me to the finish in a four-hour plus race. It is a tribute to First Endurance that though my race time wasn’t fast it is incredible that what little I could get in of the EFS drink allowed me to race for that long...

Can’t believe it is Valentines Day and I am in Panama getting ready to race my first event of 2014 this weekend! It seems so early to be racing and as expected the field is stacked. So I am a bit nervous and excited as I anticipate the pain and excitement of getting back out there on the race course for the first time healthy since August. (I was in Kona trying to race in October but in retrospect I was not really healthy and was unable to really go after the race in my condition.) Besides being a bit rusty in racing, I just discovered I am also a bit unpracticed at traveling and packing! I got halfway to the race and realized I forgot to pack my Rudy Project helmets. I didn’t pack any helmet not my road or TT helmet. I guess that is what so many hours on the Turbo without a helmet does – besides turning your brain to mush, it also makes you forgot one tiny bit of equipment. When packing I hadn’t worn a helmet in weeks so forgot about that important little item. Maybe I should start wearing my helmet on the trainer! Training has been going great with Siri and the crew back in Boulder. I am really enjoying living at home with Keiki and Eric instead of being on the road all year. But going from running in snow last week to running in Panama is going to be quite a shock to the system. I am sure to be in for a hot and nasty race this weekend. Bring on the suffering that is what we love right! Keep an eye here for my race report after the...

Moving on from failure I was crushed by my inability to finish in Kona but also devastated when my accident happened in September a month before the world championships. I tired but failed to recover from my accident and surgery in time for the world championships. I knew going into the race that this was a risk but I had hoped and prepared thinking I had a chance to succeed. All of us fail, but the key is to learn from that failure. First, there is no one to blame for my failure except myself. While the accident in September was simply bad luck, the decision to take a risk and still try to make it to the start line was my own. Despite my failure in Kona, I am glad I tried to race. If I had simply sat on the sidelines, then I know I would have been haunted by that choice. The accident was a random external event that neither my coach, Brett Sutton, nor I could have prevented. In hindsight, next year, I can focus on taking less risks. For example, I can do my easy recovery rides on the trainer and avoid riding outside in wet or icy conditions. Accidents happen and will continue to happen especially to a klutz like me. However, I will focus on minimizing my danger and try to avoid unnecessary risks in the future. Trying but failing to finish Kona has also taught me many important lessons for 2014. It is okay to take a risk, but I must be willing to accept the consequences. By being so public about trying to recover from surgery in time to race, I put myself on the line knowing that not starting and not finishing were strong possibilities given my injuries. I learned that to truly win in Kona you need to be fresh and fit mentally and physically. I underestimated the toll that recovery would have on me both mentally and physically. It was such a difficult fight to simply make it to the start line that I arrived there exhausted. I think arriving fresh is even more important than being fit, and I will not make the same mistake again. In addition, I also learned that the women’s race is changing rapidly. It was amazing to see group of women riding down the Queen K. The race looked much more like the men’s race. It is exciting to see the women’s field becoming stronger every year. The women who did make it to start line fit and fresh had amazing races. I was so impressed by Mirinda Carfrae’s record-breaking performance as well as Rachel Joyce’s sub-9 hour 2nd place finish. Along with these two, we have seen the entire women’s field lifted and performing better than ever. Chrissie Wellington may have started the trend, but it is great to see...

Wildflower lived up to my lofty expectations. Since starting triathlon a few years ago, Wildflower has been on my wish list of iconic must-do races. Unfortunately for me, it was a day of 2nd places: 2nd fastest swim to teammate Jodie by just under a minute, 2nd fastest bike to Leanda by just over a minute, and 2nd fastest run to Mighty Mags by just under a minute again. What did this all add up to? A 2nd place overall but agonizingly only 7 seconds outside of the win. I will be having nightmares and flashbacks about that slim margin for quite some time. The day started well. In the swim, as expected Jodie gaped the rest of us immediately. I lead the rest of the women around the course. I exited the water second woman not as far behind teammate Jodie as at Singapore but still almost a minute down. The bike course in Wildflower is no joke. It reminded me of doing the Alcatraz bike course twice with a 25 mile flat super windy section between the reps. It made the Quassy bike course look flat. After struggling in Galveston, it was nice to have a better bike performance on a course that was challenging and left no place to hide. I just tried to bike smart and save a bit of gas for the run. My nutrition plan went well. First Endurance drink went down smoothly, and I peed early on the bike around mile 35 which was a first (usually my system takes right around T2). I finished the bike about 90 seconds down on Leanda. She pulled away on the flat windy section of road. I definitely need to either get a femur transplant or work on my flat windy TT riding after this race and Galveston. During the first 9 miles of the run, I wasn’t able to take any time back from Leanda. Then suddenly around that 9 mile mark, the gap of 90 seconds started to slowly come down. By the time I got to the final mile, a steep downhill to the finish, the gap was only around 20 seconds. On the final downhill mile, whenever I tried to push it my calves and quads would quiver threatening to cramp up with each footfall. Even still, I made up another 13 seconds to come within 20 meters of Leanda but just couldn’t quite get there. I needed another quarter mile and I could have done it. It is hard to race for just under 4.5 hours and lose by 7 seconds. But Leanda is such a tough competitor, and she made me work hard to take back any time at all. I think we both pushed each other to race harder and were respectively only 5 and 12 seconds off the legendary Julie Dibenator’s course record. Overall, I am happy...